EU Scientists Bring Mpox to America - Exactly as Predicted in Their Own Lancet Paper

Vincent Munster, 53, a Dutch citizen and Chief of the Virus Ecology Section at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana - proud PhD alumnus of Erasmus University Rotterdam, that flagship EU mobility brand - and his colleague Claude Kwe Yinda, 38, a Cameroonian research fellow who earned his PhD at Belgium’s KU Leuven (another sterling EU institution), allegedly touched down at Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s McNamara Terminal on January 25, 2026.

They had just spent nine days in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, during an active mpox outbreak.

With them: one large black plastic case packed with 113 vials nestled in Styrofoam coolers.

When Customs and Border Protection officers asked what was inside, Munster and Kwe calmly replied it contained “only diagnostics and testing equipment.”

Munster even told investigators the necessary paperwork was on his laptop and, for good measure, added: “You don’t need them. I do this all the time.”

Munster’s “I do this all the time” line is the giveaway. These aren’t first-timers. They’ve published multiple papers on Congolese mpox. In their world, hauling samples across borders is an everyday reality.

They didn’t have the permits and hadn’t declared the biological materials.

The FBI later tested 20 of the vials and found seventeen deactivated mpox virus (clade I, straight from the Congolese outbreak zone they study) ones. One had inactivated chickenpox virus. Two held human DNA.

Each man faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Just months earlier (February 2026 Lancet Infectious Diseases perspective, officially dated April in some citations), Munster, Kwe Yinda and co-authors had published a solemn call titled “Circulation of clade Ib mpox outside of Africa - are we prepared?”

Their lab at RML (a BSL-4 facility) focuses on “emerging viral pathogens and how those pathogens cross the species barrier.”

They have co-authored multiple papers on mpox outbreaks in the Republic of the Congo.

Should The Lancet just rename itself The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Journal?